The Idaho Supreme Court in a 189-page decision released Monday ruled that 37-year-old Azad Haji Abdullah's death sentence for killing his wife and trying to kill three children will remain in place. Abdullah received the death penalty after being convicted in 2004 of first-degree murder, first-degree arson, three counts of attempted first-degree murder, and felony injury to a child.

Authorities say Abdullah in 2002 killed his wife in their Boise home and then set fire to the house with two of their children and a young friend asleep inside. Another of their children was in the backyard.